व्यापार

By Deena Beasley (Reuters) -President Donald Trump, who has long argued that the U.S. pays more than it should for prescription medicines, on Tuesday said Pfizer had agreed to cut prices for drugs it sells to the Medicaid program for low-income Americans and to ensure the U.S. would not pay more for new medicines than other high-income nations. Trump said he expects other drugmakers to follow suit. Here are details of the agreement: THE "TRUMPRX" WEBSITE Early next year the U.S. government plans to launch a website called TrumpRx that will help consumers search for a drug to see if they can buy it directly from its manufacturer. Nearly all of these existing direct-to-consumer sales platforms require patients to buy their medicines out-of-pocket, usually at a higher cost than they would pay if they had health insurance. That is very different from filling a prescription at a pharmacy that handles insurance claims, charging the patient only a flat co-pay or a percentage of the drug's cost. For people without health insurance, drugmakers often offer lower-cost or free drug programs. MORE PRICE CUTS FOR MEDICAID Pfizer pledged to reduce prices for a majority of its treatments covered by Medicaid, the joint federal and state health insurance program for low-income individuals and families. There were few details on timing and discount amounts. Drugmakers are already required by statute to give Medicaid, which accounts for about 10% of U.S. drug spending, substantial discounts off the lowest available price for a medication.  The Trump administration did not say whether lower Medicaid prices would also impact the more substantial pharmaceutical sales passing through commercial insurers or other government plans, including Medicare. MOST-FAVORED NATION PRICING    Pfizer also committed to launch new drugs at the same price in the United States as in other high-income countries.  Studies have shown that the U.S. pays more than three times as much for brand-name pharmaceuticals as other wealthy countries. U.S. prices for newly launched pharmaceuticals more than doubled last year to $370,000 from $180,000 in 2021, as companies leveraged scientific advances to develop more therapies for rare diseases, which typically command high prices, a Reuters analysis found.  Some drugmakers had already pledged to bring launch prices more into alignment. Bristol Myers last week said it would launch schizophrenia drug Cobenfy in Britain next year at a price matching its U.S. list price. The drug, as is often the case in with new pharmaceuticals, was approved in the United States some 18 months before its anticipated UK launch.  Questions remained about whether any announced prices would be final prices or whether drugmakers could still offer confidential discounts to governments or other buyers. The Trump administration said it would press other countries to pay more for medications, allowing drugmakers to fund additional research and development work. Other governments have bristled at the idea that they should pay more for branded drugs, although there has been talk of concessions. A RETURN ON PFIZER'S INVESTMENT Trump has said he will impose a 100% tariff on imports of branded or patented pharmaceutical products from October 1, unless a drugmaker is building a manufacturing plant in the U.S. Pfizer pledged to onshore 100% of the value of all imports that it currently brings into the United States, and in return the company will receive a three-year grace period during which its products will not be subject to pharmaceutical-targeted tariffs.     (Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Stephen Coates)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Deena Beasley (Reuters) -President Donald Trump, who has long argued that the U.S. pays more than it should for prescription medicines, on Tuesday said Pfizer had agreed to cut prices for drugs it sells to the Medicaid program for low-income Americans and to ensure the U.S. would not pay more for new medicines than other high-income nations. Trump said he expects other drugmakers to follow suit. Here are details of the agreement: THE "TRUMPRX" WEBSITE Early next year the U.S. government plans to launch a website called TrumpRx that will help consumers search for a drug to see if they can buy it directly from its manufacturer. Nearly all of these existing direct-to-consumer sales platforms require patients to buy their medicines out-of-pocket, usually at a higher cost than they would pay if they had health insurance. That is very different from filling a prescription at a pharmacy that handles insurance claims, charging the patient only a flat co-pay or a percentage of the drug's cost. For people without health insurance, drugmakers often offer lower-cost or free drug programs. MORE PRICE CUTS FOR MEDICAID Pfizer pledged to reduce prices for a majority of its treatments covered by Medicaid, the joint federal and state health insurance program for low-income individuals and families. There were few details on timing and discount amounts. Drugmakers are already required by statute to give Medicaid, which accounts for about 10% of U.S. drug spending, substantial discounts off the lowest available price for a medication.  The Trump administration did not say whether lower Medicaid prices would also impact the more substantial pharmaceutical sales passing through commercial insurers or other government plans, including Medicare. MOST-FAVORED NATION PRICING    Pfizer also committed to launch new drugs at the same price in the United States as in other high-income countries.  Studies have shown that the U.S. pays more than three times as much for brand-name pharmaceuticals as other wealthy countries. U.S. prices for newly launched pharmaceuticals more than doubled last year to $370,000 from $180,000 in 2021, as companies leveraged scientific advances to develop more therapies for rare diseases, which typically command high prices, a Reuters analysis found.  Some drugmakers had already pledged to bring launch prices more into alignment. Bristol Myers last week said it would launch schizophrenia drug Cobenfy in Britain next year at a price matching its U.S. list price. The drug, as is often the case in with new pharmaceuticals, was approved in the United States some 18 months before its anticipated UK launch.  Questions remained about whether any announced prices would be final prices or whether drugmakers could still offer confidential discounts to governments or other buyers. The Trump administration said it would press other countries to pay more for medications, allowing drugmakers to fund additional research and development work. Other governments have bristled at the idea that they should pay more for branded drugs, although there has been talk of concessions. A RETURN ON PFIZER'S INVESTMENT Trump has said he will impose a 100% tariff on imports of branded or patented pharmaceutical products from October 1, unless a drugmaker is building a manufacturing plant in the U.S. Pfizer pledged to onshore 100% of the value of all imports that it currently brings into the United States, and in return the company will receive a three-year grace period during which its products will not be subject to pharmaceutical-targeted tariffs.     (Reporting by Deena Beasley; Editing by Stephen Coates)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Michael S. Derby and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) -Federal Reserve liquidity facilities saw much less interest from Wall Street than expected on Tuesday as the third quarter came to a close, though a climb in repo rates showed some liquidity pressure. Quarter ends generally see challenging money market conditions as some firms pull back from the market and managing liquidity becomes challenging amid volatile interest rate movements. This quarter end was expected to be particularly choppy because overall liquidity levels have been declining as the Fed shrinks its holdings of bonds in a process known as quantitative tightening, or QT. "Repo rates did spike," said Tom di Galoma, managing director of rates and trading at Mischler Financial. "There was a lot of pressure at quarter ends, just getting deliveries done and everything else. It was pretty tricky and it's just that the system is overwhelmed." There had been concerns on Wall Street of a mild risk of a repeat of 2019 when a liquidity shortage caused a spike in short-term borrowing rates until the Federal Reserve intervened in overnight markets to alleviate the crunch. The general collateral or repo rate opened at 4.45% earlier on Tuesday and rose as high as 4.60%, ending the session at 4.35%, according to Curvature Securities. QT is designed to pull liquidity from the financial system and has aimed to remove the excess cash the Fed injected into the system during the COVID pandemic. With reverse repo usage recently at negligible levels, QT is now eating away at underlying liquidity levels, increasing the risk of unexpected friction in markets.  The challenge for the Fed and others is knowing when enough money has been taken out. The last time the Fed engaged in QT, it saw an unexpected liquidity shortfall in September 2019 that caused money market rates to spike, forcing the end of that chapter of drawdown. Ahead of Tuesday, some market participants had estimated that the SRF, started in 2021 and thus far little used, could see as much as $50 billion in usage, before being quickly unwound. Instead, the Tuesday SRF borrowing was even short of the $11 billion seen as the second quarter ended. "I do think that based on what happened so far, it seems to be a little bit less extreme, perhaps than initially anticipated," said Gennadiy Goldberg, head of U.S. rates strategy at TD Securities. The SRF is intended to serve as a shock absorber for temporary market liquidity shortfalls but there have been long-standing questions about its ability to fulfill that role. Some have worried that some firms would not use the SRF for fear of signaling to others they are in some form of trouble. By law those who use the facility will be revealed with a two-year lag. But it appears economics might have been the main force warding off usage on Tuesday. One trader noted rates for borrowing cash were higher on Monday than they were on Tuesday, suggesting less urgency to tap Fed cash. The latest Senior Financial Officer Survey released in March showed banks would actively consider placing a bid at the SRF, rather than borrow from the repo market, once rates at the latter rise 37.5 basis points over the SRF level, currently at 4.25%. That said, Joseph Abate, head of rates at SMBC Nikko Securities, noted "the reluctance to use the SRF is kind of diminishing and so we should see more willingness to use the program." (Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Andrea Ricci and Chris Reese)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

(Reuters) -Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is in talks to buy Occidental Petroleum's OxyChem petrochemical unit for about $10 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday citing people familiar with the matter. The potential sale of the OxyChem unit, which supplies products used in medical care, food security and construction, would add to a series of divestitures that Occidental has pursued in recent years in a bid to raise cash. The deal could come together within days, the report added. Berkshire is Occidental's largest shareholder, owning about 27% of the outstanding shares in the Houston, Texas-based company. The conglomerate began acquiring its stake in the oil and gas producer in February 2022, around the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. If the deal closes, it would mark Berkshire Hathaway's biggest deal since its $11.6 billion purchase of Alleghany in 2022. Berkshire Hathaway and Occidental Petroleum did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Occidental has grappled with a heavy debt load, a legacy of its $55 billion acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum in 2019, when it outbid rival Chevron to secure shale oilfields in Texas. Anadarko's nearly a quarter-million acres in the Permian Basin hold oil and gas deposits that can produce output for decades using low-cost drilling techniques. As well, Occidental's $12 billion acquisition of privately held U.S. shale oil producer CrownRock last year significantly increased the company's debt load, which was $23.34 billion at the end of June. Berkshire does not plan to pay for OxyChem using Occidental stock, the Financial Times reported separately on Tuesday, citing a person familiar with the matter. FT had reported over the weekend that Occidental was seeking at least $10 billion for OxyChem. The OxyChem unit generated $2.42 billion in revenue in the first two quarters of 2025. Berkshire has built up a cash reserve nearing $350 billion as of June. Buffett, 95, is set to step down as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of 2025. (Reporting by Katha Kalia and Pooja Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. labor market likely needs to weaken further for the Federal Reserve to achieve its 2% inflation target, as prices are rising even faster without factoring in the impact of new import tariffs, Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan said on Tuesday. Logan urged caution in making further interest rate cuts, while being bullish on the economy but hawkish about persistent inflation risks. Current monetary policy is putting only modest pressure on an economy in which consumption remains "resilient," asset values are high and sentiment seems to be rebounding, she said in comments prepared for delivery at a Dallas Fed event. "A modest further increase in labor market slack is likely necessary to finish restoring price stability," Logan said. "I will be cautious about further rate cuts. It is critical for the FOMC to keep its commitment to deliver 2% inflation," she added, referring to the U.S. central bank's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee. The Fed lowered its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to the 4%-4.25% range on September 17, and indicated more cuts would follow at meetings in October and December. While there has been much focus on the impact import taxes may or may not have on prices, Logan said her staff estimates that prices outside of goods and housing are rising fast enough to keep inflation as high as 2.4%. Coupled with steady demand and financial conditions she feels are adding to growth, Logan said the Fed needs to keep policy tight enough to restrain the economy and create more labor "slack" through rising unemployment, a decline in hours worked, or other labor market margins. "The state of the economy and financial conditions indicate to me the stance of monetary policy is only modestly restrictive," Logan said, noting that she supported the recent quarter point rate cut to insure against a steep rise in unemployment. However, she said it is unclear how much further the Fed can ease policy given that the current policy rate of 4% to 4.25% is already at the upper range of estimates of the "neutral" rate that neither boosts nor discourages spending and investment. "There may be relatively little room to make additional rate cuts without inadvertently moving to an inappropriately accommodative stance," Logan said. (Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Richard Chang)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Juveria Tabassum and Nicholas P. Brown (Reuters) -Nike on Tuesday reported a surprise rise in first-quarter revenue and beat profit expectations as the storied sportswear brand's turnaround effort gained traction despite weakness in China and tariffs pressuring margins. Shares rose 3.4% in choppy extended trading as the company also managed to clear some of its bloated inventory and wholesale revenues returned to growth in a sign of early success for CEO Elliott Hill's plan to get Nike back to its former glory. Executives warned the recovery was still a way off. Nike now expects tariffs to cost it about $1.5 billion this year, compared with the $1 billion expected earlier. The sportswear brand makes nearly all its shoes in countries such as Vietnam that have been hit with steep duties under U.S. President Donald Trump. CEO Hill, a Nike veteran, took the reins last year and has vowed to refocus the brand around core sports like running following a string of weak quarters, and to producing the kind of cutting-edge products Nike was known for. "We're also realistic that we are turning our business around in the face of a cautious consumer tariffs uncertainty and teams that are still settling into this sports offense," Hill said on a post-earnings call In the company's earnings statement, Hill admitted Nike still had "work ahead to get all sports, geographies, and channels on a similar path." Nike forecast second-quarter revenue to fall in the low-single digits, compared with estimates of a 3.1% drop. It expects its struggling wholesale business to record growth for fiscal 2026 as well. CHINA PAIN PERSISTS China, Nike's third-largest market, has been a particular problem, and executives said recovery there would take longer. The country accounted for 15% of overall sales in fiscal 2025. Sales in Greater China fell for the fifth straight quarter for the three months ended August 31 as Nike struggled to drum up demand in the face of stiff competition from domestic brands including Anta and Li-Ning. The company has also lost market share to younger rivals such as On and Deckers' Hoka. Hill said Nike sent U.S. basketball stars LeBron James and Ja Morant to China recently as ambassadors, adding that he expects sports like running and basketball to drive growth in the region.  "Nike beat the low bar set for EPS and showed some wholesale strength, but the underlying fundamentals are still shaky. DTC weakness, margin pressure, and China softness are flashing yellow lights," said David Bartosiak, stock strategist at Zacks Investment Research. FIRST-QUARTER SURPRISE While wholesale revenues rose 5% on a currency neutral basis, margins still faced a drag from higher costs of products due to tariffs.  The company's first-quarter revenue rose 1% on a reported basis to $11.72 billion. Analysts had expected a fall of 5.1% to $11 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Nike's finance boss Matthew Friend said the company's direct-to-consumer business will not return to growth in fiscal 2026, with North America leading recovery and China lagging behind. Nike reported first-quarter earnings per share of 49 cents, handily beating estimates of 27 cents, as it gained some ground in reducing inventory levels in the quarter. But the company's gross margin decreased 320 basis points to 42.2%, following a 440-basis-point fall in the preceding three-month period. (Reporting by Juveria Tabassum in Bengaluru and Nicholas P. Brown in New York; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

SEOUL (Reuters) -OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman on Wednesday plans to meet with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who seeks to boost Asia's fourth-biggest economy through a policy of boosting investment in artificial intelligence, the presidential office has said. The meeting will take place at the presidential office in center Seoul at 6 p.m. (0900 GMT), the office said. OpenAI this year set up its first office in Seoul and appointed former Google official KyoungHoon Kim to lead the operation, as demand in the country jumps for its ChatGPT service. South Korea has the largest number of paying ChatGPT subscribers after the United States, according to OpenAI. During his visit to Seoul, Altman is also expected to meet with leaders of South Korea's chipmakers – Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which make advanced memory chips used in AI data centers, media reports said. At the White House in January, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the "Stargate" AI infrastructure project that would cost half a trillion dollars and be developed by OpenAI and its partners. including SoftBank and Oracle. Nvidia said last week that it will invest up to $100 billion in OpenAI and supply it with data center chips. Earlier this year, OpenAI said it would develop AI products for South Korea with South Korea's dominant chat app operator Kakao. (Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Heekyong Yang; Editing by Leslie Adler)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Sinéad Carew and Niket Nishant NEW YORK (Reuters) -Wall Street's three major indexes managed to close Tuesday's choppy session higher, marking quarterly and monthly gains, even as investors braced for a U.S. government shutdown, which would delay key economic reports and muddy the  Federal Reserve's interest rate policy outlook. With investors having bet for some time on a spate of further Fed rate cuts, the benchmark S&P 500, the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the Dow all gained for the second quarter in a row.  For the S&P 500 and the Dow, it also marked their fifth straight monthly gain while the Nasdaq registered its sixth straight monthly gain.  And with no signs of an end to the standoff in Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump warned congressional Democrats that a federal government shutdown at midnight would allow his administration to take "irreversible" actions including shutting down programs important to them. While previous shutdowns have had a limited impact on markets, some analysts warned that this time could be more disruptive, given the delicate economic backdrop. Earlier on Tuesday, a Labor Department report showed job openings increased marginally in August, while hiring and layoffs declined. Another data point showed U.S. consumer confidence declined more than expected in September. The latest jobs data did not suggest significant job losses, but Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia, said, "it's a very balanced market that could be tipped either way very quickly." He said the market's leadership mix of defensive sectors such as healthcare and consumer staples along with more cyclical sectors such as industrials showed a lack of "significant conviction directionally."  "Maybe there's some position-squaring in advance of the prospect of a government shutdown," Luschini said. "Were that to occur, and last beyond Friday, we'll start to accumulate significant economic data such as the jobs report on Friday that won't be released. That leaves investors a little bit in the shadows with regard to what's going on on the ground." The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 81.82 points, or 0.18%, to 46,397.89, marking its latest record closing high. The S&P 500 gained 27.25 points, or 0.41%, to 6,688.46 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 68.86 points, or 0.31%, to 22,660.01.  For the month the S&P 500 gained 3.53%, for its biggest September percentage gain since 2010 while for the quarter it gained 7.79%, for its biggest third-quarter gain since 2020.  For the quarter, the Nasdaq rose 11.24%, for its biggest third-quarter gain since 2010 and the Dow climbed 5.22%. For the month the Nasdaq rose 5.61%, and the Dow climbed 1.87%, for its biggest September gain since 2019.  Among the S&P 500's 11 major industry sectors, healthcare was the leader, adding 2.45%. Its biggest gainer was Pfizer, which rallied 6.8% after Trump said it will cut the price of all prescription drugs in the Medicaid program for low-income Americans and sell new prescription drugs at a "most favored nation" price in exchange for tariff relief. Helping other healthcare stocks to rally, Trump also said he expects other drugmakers to follow suit. The Dow Jones Transportation Average Index fell 0.4%, with airlines leading declines due to the government shutdown threat. A group representing major U.S. airlines had warned on Monday that a partial federal government shutdown could strain American aviation and slow flights, as air traffic controllers and security officers would be forced to work without pay and other functions would be halted. Southwest Airlines shares fell 2.6% while United Airlines lost 2.2%. In preparation for the shutdown, the U.S. Transportation Department said that more than 11,000 employees at the Federal Aviation Administration, about a quarter of its staff, will be furloughed if government funding lapses at midnight, while more than 13,000 air traffic controllers would be required to keep working unpaid until the shutdown ended. Earlier in the day, Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson warned that the job market could face stress without central bank support, while Boston Fed President Susan Collins said she was open to additional rate cuts. In individual stocks, chipmaker Wolfspeed surged 29% a day after exiting bankruptcy. Firefly Aerospace shares sank 20.7% following a testing mishap that destroyed the core booster for its centerpiece Alpha rocket. Lamb Weston shares rose 4.3% after the frozen-potato products maker beat analysts' estimates for first-quarter revenue and profit. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.27-to-1 ratio on the NYSE where there were 352 new highs and 87 new lows. On the Nasdaq, 2,324 stocks rose and 2,367 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.02-to-1 ratio.  The S&P 500 posted 48 new 52-week highs and 4 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 104 new highs and 85 new lows. On U.S. exchanges 18.56 billion shares changed hands on Tuesday, compared with the 18.38 billion moving average for the last 20 sessions. (Reporting by Sinéad Carew, Chuck Mikolajczak in New York, Niket Nishant and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva, Pooja Desai and Matthew Lewis)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Ernest Scheyder (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Energy will take a 5% stake in Lithium Americas and a separate 5% stake in the company's Thacker Pass lithium mine joint venture with General Motors, a source familiar with negotiations said. Shares of Vancouver-based Lithium Americas listed in New York rose 34% in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the stake negotiations were finalized. It will be the latest private sector investment by President Donald Trump's administration after recent stakes in Intel and MP Materials , seeking to boost industries seen as vital to U.S. national security. Last week, Reuters reported that administration officials were in discussions with Lithium Americas about an equity stake as they renegotiated terms of a $2.26 billion government loan for the mine, slated to become the largest source of the battery metal lithium in the Western Hemisphere. Representatives for Lithium Americas and GM were not immediately available to comment. On Tuesday, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Bloomberg TV that Washington would take a stake in the company. Details of the stake's percentage and the separate stake in the GM joint venture have not previously been reported. The government, which will acquire the stakes via no-cost warrants, requested an unspecified amount of equity during discussions in recent months over the loan's amortization schedule, Reuters previously reported. In response to that request and in order to secure the first tranche of loan funding, Lithium Americas last week offered the government no-cost warrants that would equate to 5% to 10% of its common shares. The investment terms were being finalized throughout last week and as recently as yesterday, according to the source. GM, which invested $625 million in the mine last year for a 38% stake, has the right to buy all of the project's lithium from its first phase and a portion from the second phase for 20 years. Administration officials had initially sought a guarantee that GM would buy the metal regardless of market conditions, a request the automaker pushed back on and which led to the equity stake request, Reuters previously reported. The Thacker Pass project has long been touted by both Republicans and Democrats as a key way to boost U.S. critical minerals production and cut reliance on China, the world's largest lithium processor. The U.S. produces less than 5,000 metric tons of lithium at a Nevada facility owned by Albemarle. Thacker Pass's first phase is expected to produce 40,000 metric tons of battery-quality lithium carbonate per year, enough for up to 800,000 EVs. China plays a dominant role in the global lithium supply chain, producing more than 40,000 metric tons each year, making it the third-largest producer after Australia and Chile. China's influence is far greater in refining, where it processes over 75% of the world's lithium into battery-grade material. (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Chris Reese, Veronica Brown and David Gregorio)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Ernest Scheyder (Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Energy will take a 5% stake in Lithium Americas and a separate 5% stake in the company's Thacker Pass lithium mine joint venture with General Motors, according to a source familiar with negotiations. Reuters reported last week that Trump administration officials were in discussions with Lithium Americas about an equity stake in the company as they renegotiated terms of a $2.26 billion government loan for the mine, slated to become the largest source of the battery metal lithium in the Western Hemisphere. (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Chris Reese)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)